10,000 Meals

4 colleges. 220 students. 10,000 meals. Fewer hungry families.

Students from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM), Keystone College, Lackawanna College and the University of the Sciences spent the day at GCSOM on Aug. 23, 2018, taking the first steps toward building a living case study centered on how food insecurity impacts community. From nutrition and education to food deserts to the economics of nutrition and healthcare, the students studied existing research and ways to make positive change.

Partnering with Geisinger’s Springboard Healthy Scranton initiative and local nonprofit, Here for a Reason, students assembled 10,000 meals to be distributed to families with children at schools in the Scranton School District. At the schools targeted, a staggering 100 percent of enrolled children qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, increasing the likelihood that their families struggle with food insecurity – a serious obstacle to learning, as well as a social determinant of health well within the power of communities to change.